If you need for a view (and all its subviews) not to be focusable by assistive tech like VoiceOver, you can set its accessibilityElementsHidden property to true. This isn't needed very often, but it can be useful for certain custom experiences.
Day 72
Hide views with accessibilityElementsHidden
29 Jul 2022
Some of you have asked me how you can support what I do. This would really help, and would be hugely appreciated:
Find these posts useful? Share them at work, on social media, or with anyone that might find them interesting. Let's spread the word!
Check out any of my apps or games: Xarra!, RetroRapid!, or Mestre!.
A download and a review go a long way. They're free by default. On the App Store, ratings and reviews really help more people discover them.
Finding any of them useful? If so, and if you can afford it, purchasing lifetime access to all features or subscribing lets me buy the coffee that keeps me caffeinated. Caffeine keeps me going to maintain the apps, bring in new features that I hope you'll love, and keep writing.
You may also find interesting...
What is the difference between isAccessibilityElement and accessibilityElementsHidden? The first one makes the view not accessible, but its subviews can still be accessible. The second one hides the view and all its subviews from assistive tech.
Creating UIAccessibilityElements, combined with a semanticGroup accessibilityContainerType, can also help you make components as complex as charts accessible. Example from "Bring Accessibility to Charts" WWDC21: https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2021/10122/
When setting isAccessibilityElement to true, assistive tech like VoiceOver will stop looking for other accessible elements in that view hierarchy. So if we make a view accessible, its subviews, including buttons and labels won't be accessible.
Content © Daniel Devesa Derksen-Staats on Accessibility up to 11! is licensed under CC BY 4.0. License details
